Mark Sutton, 42, died when he crashed into a mountain ridge near Mont Blanc in the Alps at 155mph after jumping in a wingsuit from a helicopter at 10,800ft.

The former Army officer played a pivotal role in the acclaimed curtain-raiser for the London Games when he and a fellow stuntman, Gary Connery, disguised as the Queen, parachuted into the stadium.

Boyle, who directed the opening ceremony, said he was honoured to have worked with Mr Sutton and described his death as a “huge loss to his profession”.

“In a brilliant partnership with Gary Connery they made the stadium gasp at the opening ceremony in London 2012 and left indelible memories for people from all walks of life all over the world,” he added. “The show was built from so many contributions from so many people, none finer and braver than Mark Sutton.”

Swiss police are examining video footage of the jump that killed Mr Sutton, who was taking part in the first day of a wing-diving event organised and filmed by the French online extreme sports broadcaster Epic TV.

The tragedy unfolded after Mr Sutton and his friend Tony Uragallo jumped from a helicopter at 11am on Wednesday on a “warm-up” flight intended to last about a minute.

They were wearing wingsuits, special jumpsuits that increase the body’s surface area, allowing the wearer to soar through the air at very high speeds before using a parachute to land.

Footage from cameras fixed to Mr Uragallo’s suit is believed to show Mr Sutton leaving the helicopter before veering off course. The moment of impact was not filmed.

An emergency helicopter arrived within minutes but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Mr Uragallo, who runs a company that makes wingsuits, broke the news by telephone to Mr Sutton’s girlfriend, Victoria Homewood, who was in Chamonix, half an hour’s drive over the border in France.

Mr Sutton was one of 20 of the world’s top wingsuit “pilots” invited to take part in the three-day non-competitive event in Switzerland and France.

Mr Uragallo was too upset to take part yesterday, but the other participants decided to go ahead in Mr Sutton’s honour.

A spokesman for Epic TV said: “Wingsuiting is an extreme sport and there are risks, just as there are with extreme skiing or Formula 1 racing. Accidents happen.”

Officers in the Swiss canton of Valais said Mr Sutton had “no chance of survival” and stressed that his death was being treated as an accident.

Jean-Marie Bornet, a police spokesman, said the weather was good at the time, but added that there was very little margin for error with wing-diving. An experienced wingsuit instructor quashed speculation that the British stuntman could have been “showing off”, saying that he was known for being “very safe, responsible and very calculated” and did not make stupid decisions.

Mr Sutton was an officer with the Royal Gurkha Rifles from 1991 to 1995 before moving into finance. At the time of his death he was working as a consultant for RBS.

Miss Homewood, 39, was too upset to comment yesterday, but a friend who answered the door at the home she shared with Mr Sutton in Shere, Surrey, said she had been “torn up” by the tragedy.

Anne Stewart, 68, one of the couple’s neighbours, said she had no idea that Mr Sutton took part in extreme sports, adding: “He was very unassuming.

“He came over as being a very, very nice person. They loved the tranquillity of the Surrey hills.”